MELINDA JAMES: Had you seen the final policy on the future of outstations before it was revealed to the media?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: No, look and that was part of the communication breakdown, I had since had discussions with the Chief Minister to talk about a lot of those concerns.

MELINDA JAMES: Did you feel that you'd been deliberately left out of the loop by the Chief Minister and by Alison Anderson, the Indigenous Policy Minister, on formulating the final draft of that policy?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Not at all, I mean I had come back to work on that Monday. Certainly I was caught up with the Senate Committee into the Tiwi Island forestry.Unbeknownst to me there was then that launch of the 'Homelands Policy' the next day but I had been notified certainly that night and I did feel certainly a bit cross that I could have been afforded, particularly a member of, you know, whose electorate was directly going to be impacted on. I don't have one or two homelands in my electorate I have nearly forty-two and I thought that it was you know certainly, a member who has a huge homeland movement or outstation movement that I should have been considered or afforded an opportunity to have a look at what the final policy was before it was put out. I was also cranky that I had given a commitment as the Minister at that time representing the government that we would go back and consult. That is old ground, I'm not wanting to reopen that, I have said to Paul Henderson that I will work with him to certainly make sure that we can work through this. There are many good things in the growth towns, I'm not against that, I think that you know certainly putting the resources into our major communities is important but at the same time we need to look at where we are having success in the homelands and support those people.

MELINDA JAMES: On Wednesday you stood shoulder to shoulder with Paul Henderson and said you were happy to stay in the Labor party after your discussions with caucus about the outstations policy. Then, less than 24 hours later you released a statement announcing your decision to become an independent and that said, "I can no longer rely on all Caucus colleagues to implement the concessions that I won in the Caucus meeting yesterday." What does that mean?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Look there were, I had agreements with the Chief Minister to work through to have my concerns addressed, certainly all caucus colleagues agreed to that as well..

MELINDA JAMES: So what changed overnight to make you no longer think you could trust your colleagues to make those concessions?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Look, I felt that certainly discussions in the caucus room are discussions for the caucus room and I am not about to go through what those discussions are, Mel.

MELINDA JAMES: But you obviously left that caucus room meeting thinking they would make concessions and then the next morning believed that you could no longer trust them to make good on that commitment?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: I left that caucus meeting and went out with the Chief Minister., I was, and I meant every word, I was very comfortable with staying in the Labor caucus to work through with the Chief Minister and all of my former Labor colleagues to make sure that we delivered good policy for Aboriginal people, not in just our major communities but also the homelands and outstations. Now I gave that commitment, I went out to the media and I said that and I meant that. I was bitterly disappointed when the next morning when I read the Northern Territory News that the story that had unfolded had hurt and I was disappointed and I certainly felt after discussion with the Chief Minister that I was no longer going to stay within the Labor caucus.

MELINDA JAMES: Because you felt that you were somehow being white-anted by your colleagues?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Oh look Mel it has certainly been cleared that no caucus member was involved but certainly some people have said different things. I look, I want that door shut and I'm about moving forward.

MELINDA JAMES: Just to clarify, in the newspaper article it said you walked into caucus on Wednesday, burst into tears and apologised to your Labor colleagues for threatening to leave the party. Is that true or false?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Look Mel, I made a statement to say that that article was totally inaccurate, there are 13 members that sit in that caucus room. When we walk in that caucus room there are 13 of us. Now the discussion we have behind those doors is discussion for caucus members and to say that I had burst into tears or I'd cried, sure there were tears in the caucus room but let me tell you categorically, they certainly weren't mine.

MELINDA JAMES: Other people were very upset?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: So I think that you know that's all I'm going to say, I felt there has been a pattern since 2007 to attack me on a personal level and ...

MELINDA JAMES: Can I just stop you there, Marion Scrymgour. You're very specific about this pattern of leaks to the media that were harmful to you having emerged in 2007. Why 2007, what was the catalyst, what happened then?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Oh look I'm not sure, Mel, but I've gone right back to 2007, I've had a look over every media, you know I keep quite a good archive filing cabinet at home and certainly since 2001 and I've gone meticulously through all of, every media event or any media that has had my name on it. I have certainly paid attention to and kept a record of and it is very clear since 2007, it might have been a bit before that but from around 2007 the attacks have been personal. Look, I wear that ...

MELINDA JAMES: Whose interest do you think they serve, what's motivating the person who is leaking these things to the media?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Look I don't know and I'm not going to crystal ball gaze or try and work this out any longer, Mel.

MELINDA JAMES: Do you know who is trying to undermine you and your position?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Look, you can sit there and you can, you know the conspiracy theories, you can try and assume that this person does it or that but look it's not about that, Mel. You know, I need to show my constituents and people of the Northern Territory that you know I am very confident of my emotional stability.

MELINDA JAMES: But just to make this personally clear it seems that you believe there has been a concerted campaign against you waged mainly in the media that has come from someone within the Labor fold, be it a caucus colleague or a Labor staffer?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: And look I have said to the Chief Minister and my colleagues after Wednesday's paper that I can no longer tolerate this sort of event unfolding constantly, I know ...

MELINDA JAMES: And you hold someone within the Labor Party to blame though?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Can I say Melinda, when I signed up for this job in 2001 and maybe you know starry-eyed, naive. Marion Scrymgour gets sworn in as the Member for Arafura, the hopes and dreams of every constituent in that electorate on my shoulders and my own hopes and dreams and I know the reality is I know I am a public figure, I know that I am going to be in for criticisms, I am under the spotlight, I am under the pump. I don't mind that if I have failed as a parliamentary member but I do find it a bit galling and beyond what should be in the public arena, when it is personal attacks, when people cast aspersions particularly on your emotional capacity, your mental health? I have seen this happen to women time and time again where if you're a woman and you reach a certain level you're attacked you know and you're attacked for being irrational, you're attacked for being emotional. You know people wouldn't, you know this would not happen to a man.

MELINDA JAMES: Putting this week's leak and whoever was responsible for it completely aside: your views on outstations and the intervention are fundamentally opposed to those of the current Indigenous Policy minister Alison Anderson. Has it contributed at all to your resignation, seeing the future direction of Indigenous Policy in the Northern Territory?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Melinda, can I say that you know the other day Paul Henderson and I was talking about there is not much daylight between him and I and you know amongst members in the Labor caucus. Can I say that there is not much daylight between Alison Anderson and I in terms of, if you're in a room with Alison and I when we talk and we go through these issues, we are both very passionate and very committed to turning around what is happening on the ground in communities, I have ..

MELINDA JAMES: In response to your Charles Perkins oration in 2007, the speech in which you called the intervention the "black kids Tampa" and a "vicious new McCarthyism" - your colleague Alison Anderson said in response to that, someone who supported the intervention all along, she says, "It is a disgrace that people who know nothing about living amongst the poverty and abuse in remote communities have condemned the intervention. My people need real protection, not motherhood statements from urbanised saviours". That was widely meant to mean at the time that she was talking about you?

MARION SCRYMGOUR: Oh look, I think Alison was probably talking about a number of people. But, Melinda, can I say that you know, we have sat in the same room in the same caucus, we both have the same passion to deal with the issues and the measures in relation to the you know what caused the intervention. Alison has an opinion, I have an opinion you know we both come from a varied and very different work experience.